


One Wrong Step

by yabakuboi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Discord: Umino Hours, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, High School Teachers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yabakuboi/pseuds/yabakuboi
Summary: Iruka’s not enough of a romantic to say that he’s in love with Kakashi. But he knows he could be. He knows he could take one wrong step and fall right into it, could fall in love with Kakashi’s smiles, could fall in love with Kakashi’s laughter, could fall in love with Kakashi’s voice.But Iruka’s a pragmatic sort of man, and he knows there’s no point in pining for something he can’t have.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 5
Kudos: 188
Collections: 90 Mins To Gift - Iruka's Birthday





	One Wrong Step

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Birthday 90-minute server exchange in the Umino Hours server! For the very lovely and talented KeithYeet who gave me the gave met he keywords mahogany and flustered, and also requested banter. I really kind of just RAN with the banter, and wrote this in a solid 90 minute block. My fingers are aching!! I hope you enjoy it!

Iruka looks up from his computer at the sound of the bell, his eyes tense and tired, and his shoulders aching from hunching over his keyboard. But his lesson plans for the month are complete, and he can go into his weekend without having to think about them. No doubt all of his co-workers have already left for the night, but Iruka can’t rest if he has something burning in his mind. Better to work through it ahead of time instead of dwelling on it when he should be relaxing.

Squinting, he peers across the cluster of desks — all piled high with paper work and books and various degrees of chaos — and finds himself not quite as alone as he expects.

Kakashi-sensei has his feet up on his desk and a book covering his face, tilting precariously back on two legs of his chair. There’s no doubt that he’s sleeping, and Iruka rolls his eyes, because this is probably the fiftieth time he’s found Kakashi sleeping in places his shouldn’t be.

“Kakashi-sensei,” he calls as he gathers up his things. Night is falling quickly outside, and, with it, Iruka can almost feel the evening rain that it will bring. “Kakashi-sensei, it’s time to go home.”

Kakashi doesn’t even stir, until Iruka approaches him and kicks his chair.

Cursing, Kakashi only just manages to right himself before landing on the ground, and Iruka hides the vindictively pleased feeling that surges within him to see the normally composed teacher flailing for balance.

He smiles innocently when Kakashi glares at him. “Kakashi-sensei, it’s time to go home,” he says.

“Iruka-sensei,” Kakashi scowls, and Iruka might be a little more intimidated if he wasn’t as well acquainted with Kakashi’s eccentricities. Like the porn book that has dropped to the floor, or the man's proclivity for napping in the nurse's office. “I was having a very nice dream, you know.”

“Oh?”

Kakashi throws his already packed bag over his shoulders, and together they make their way out of the school grounds. “I was! There was this fox and a snake fighting, and all my dogs were barking at them. And then the principal came to yell at me, because the dogs were spreading rumors about her gambling problem and they were saying really rude things about the director. It was chaos!”

Iruka snorts. “There’s no rumors about Tsunade-sensei’s gambling problem when she openly talks about it.”

“You know I won five-hundered off of her the other day?” Kakashi says conversationally. “We were betting on if Sakura-chan was going to deck Naruto-chan for his new art project.”

“Wait, you bet against Sakura?”

“It was a pity bet! And then Naruto just managed to duck away before Sakura could catch him. We both ended up disappointed.”

This time Iruka tilts his head back and laughs. It’s loud in the quiet of the evening, dusk having given away to dark, and their path home lit by the golden glow of streetlights and the evening traffic. May is warm this year, but there’s a breeze on their skin, cooling the heat from the concrete and making their commute bearable.

“Anyways,” Kakashi says, and when Iruka looks at him, Kakashi is turning away, eyes steadfast on the path before them. “My dream you so rudely interrupted.”

“Oh yes, of course,” Iruka says, chuckling. “A million apologies.”

“You’re not forgiven,” Kakashi sings. He pokes his lip out in a genuine pout, and Iruka rolls his eyes again. “Like I was saying, Tsunade-sensei was yelling at me, even though I had nothing to do with my dogs’ nasty opinions on her past time. Can I really be held liable for what they say? And I don’t even know where they heard those kinds of things about the director!”

“I mean, knowing you—”

“That was a rhetorical question, sensei, please. I would never speak ill of Orochimaru-san.”

“I have actual video evidence that says the opposite,” Iruka says, thinking of the several times Kakashi’s gotten a little too tipsy in the middle of the bar and proceeded to spill a lot of stupid tidbits that really weren’t that interesting. “You’re a gossip.”

“Ah! Sensei!” Kakashi gasps, clutching his chest. “You wound me! This is slander to the highest degree!”

“Slander would require a false statement.”

“Iruka-sensei!”

“I’m just telling you facts, Kakashi-sensei.” 

This time it’s Kakashi who laughs, hunching over and clutching his stomach. Iruka feels like the entire world freezes in time around him, even though he can hear the cars still passing by and the other pedestrians laughing as they make their own ways home.

Kakashi is unfairly handsome. He's funny and smart and surprisingly awkward, dedicated to his students and the school. Iruka’s known him for the better part of five years, and while they weren’t always friends, Iruka had always felt his eye drawn to him. And now, when these after-work walks home are a part of his daily routine, Iruka sometimes feels like he doesn’t quite have the right to share the same air as someone like Hatake Kakashi.

Iruka’s not enough of a romantic to say that he’s in love with Kakashi. But he knows he could be. He knows he could take one wrong step and fall right into it, could fall in love with Kakashi’s smiles, could fall in love with Kakashi’s laughter, could fall in love with Kakashi’s voice.

But Iruka’s a pragmatic sort of man, and he knows there’s no point in pining for something he can’t have.

Instead, he carefully averts his eyes from staring too long, and carefully excuses himself when the conversation gets too soft, and carefully, carefully closes his heart in case he stumbles.

“Iruka-sensei?” 

Iruka startles and finds himself standing outside of his favorite ramen shop, Kakashi calling to him from where he’s holding the door open for him.

“Dinner?” he asks, his smile that slow, flirty curve that Iruka imagines Kakashi gives to women when he asks them out. “I’ll pay.”

“Fine,” Iruka agrees, flustered. He knows his face is red and he hurries past Kakashi. He has to avoid Teuchi’s knowing gaze on his way in.

They sit in their usual spot at the end of the long bar, towards the back of the little restaurant. He’s not surprised to see a gaggle of teenagers crowded into a booth, and ruffles Naruto’s hair on his way past, ignoring the indignant squawk in his wake. Kakashi slides in close beside him, their elbows touching, despite the fact that the stools are bolted to the floor. 

“So, like I was saying,” Kakashi starts. “Tsunade-sensei was yelling at me, and then guess who came to my rescue?”

“Gai-sensei?” 

Kakashi sighs explosively. “No! It was you Iruka-sensei!”

“Me?” Iruka asks, distracted when Teuchi sets a plate of gyoza between them. “Why would I save you from a scolding you most definitely deserved?”

“Allegedly!” Kakashi cries. “And you were my hero, sweeping me off my feet and carrying me to safety.” He leans in a little closer, close enough to whisper. “My handsome knight in shining armor, you know?”

Iruka flushes so red, he’s surprised he doesn’t overheat, and he smacks Kakashi’s shoulder. “In your dreams!”

Kakashi just sighs again, this time a little wistfully, as he rubs his abused shoulder. “Sadly, it seems you’re right, this time sensei. We really should do something about that.”

Iruka is saved from having to reply to that by the steaming bowls set in front of them. Teuchi just winks at him, before hustling off to another customer waiting down the bar-top. 

But Kakashi doesn’t seem to be willing to let it go now. “Really, Iruka-sensei,” he says, taking a dainty bite of a pork slice. “We should remedy this as soon as possible. Who’s going to protect me from real life scoldings if not you?”

“Gai-sensei?”

Kakashi’s head actually hits the table this time. “Please stop bringing him up!”

Snorting, Iruka pats his back. “I thought you two were best friends?”

“We are, but that’s not what we’re talking about here, Iruka-sensei.” He waves his chopsticks between the two of them. “We’re talking about you and me!” 

“Really? I honestly lost track of the conversation somewhere between the talking dogs and Sakura-chan’s delinquency.” 

“Please keep up, sensei, this is a very important conversation we’re having,” Kakashi sighs dramatically. He drums a quick beat on the dark wood under their bowls, as quick as a heart beat, before he clenches his hand into a fist between them. “It’s your birthday this week.”

Iruka swallows a mouth full of noodles. “Yes,” he says, even though it wasn’t a question.

“Well,” Kakashi starts, and pauses. He shifts in his seat, as if he’s trying to get comfortable, and Iruka is stuck by the fact that Kakashi is  _ nervous _ . “I’d like to take you on a date,” he says finally. “If you’d like.”

Something clicks into place in Iruka’s head. “Oh,” he says, a little faintly. “You’ve been flirting with me.”

“I have been for five years,” Kakashi says, sounding genuinely pained. “Thank you for noticing.”

“You’re really terrible at it.”

“So I’ve been told.” 

“Gai-sensei?”

“Do you know what it’s like to be coached about flirting by that man?” Kakashi huffs, looking world-weary at just the thought of it. “If I have to hear him wax on about the spring-time of my love, I really will quit my job and become a hermit.”

Iruka can’t help himself, and doubles over with stifled, elated laughter. He feels ridiculous, feels like he’s wasted so much time steadfastly ignoring all of Kakashi’s obvious, albeit awkward flirting over the years. Wasn’t it last Christmas that Kakashi had drunkenly written Iruka a poem on a napkin, detailing how much he liked Iruka’s face, scar and all? Iruka had thought Kakashi was joking, even though that napkin now lives in his desk drawer at home.

When his laughter finally dies down to a few hiccuping chuckles and he can look up again, Kakashi is watching him intently, chin resting on his palm, and he’s smiling so gently and sweetly that Iruka can barely stand it.

He bows his head back towards the table top, mindlessly tracing the mahogany grain in the wood. “You’re not joking,” he says, serious. Out of the corner of his eye, he see Kakashi nod, and Iruka swallows. “If you really are serious—”

“I am.”

“Okay,” Iruka says. He takes a deep breath, and meets Kakashi’s eyes, sees his own giddiness and longing reflected back to him. He takes that wrong step. “Okay, then. Ask me properly.”

Kakashi’s smile grows, and he leans in a little closer, close enough to kiss. “Please go out with me, Iruka-sensei.”

Iruka really doesn’t have the words, so he just nods.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://yabakuboi.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/yabakuboi)! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧


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